Creating Connection Essential to Learning

"While teachers may focus on what they are teaching, evolutionary history and current neuroscience suggest it is who they are and the emotional environment in the classroom they are able to create that are the fundamental regulators of neuroplasticity. Secure relationships not only trigger brain growth, but also serve emotional regulation that enhances learning" ​~Dr. Louis CozolinoThe Social Neuroscience of Education, p. 17

"The Curriculum: What Are The Basics And Are We Teaching Them? "

The very word, BASIC, compels selection. It demands discrimination that ranks some issues as essential and others as not. Here’s the BASIC thing to remember, we say, wielding that giant spotlight of our attention, and suddenly all else falls into darkness. I, myself, have always been pretty suspicious of that spotlight, always straining to see what lives in its shadow, always hoping that whoever directs it beam will be distracted and turn too quickly, letting the light pour into the world we weren’t supposed to see (Grumet, 1995, p. 15).

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What lurks in the shadows?

The Need For Connection

"While teachers may focus on what they are teaching, evolutionary history and current neuroscience suggest that it is who they are and the emotional environment in the classroom they are able to create that are the fundamental regulators of neuroplasticity. Secure relationships not only trigger brain growth, but also serve emotional regulation that enhances learning” (Cozolino, 2013, p.1)

Well-Being

"It is difficult to overstate the difference that a teacher or school can make in the mental health of a child or youth not through expensive or sophisticated interventions, but through compassion, inclusion, encouragement, and effective instruction" (Carney, 2013, p.2).

Self-Regulation

"The better we understand the complex biological and experiential interactions involved in self-regulation, the better we can design classroom practices that will enhance a student’s self-regulation"​(Shanker, 2013).

Why Circles?

Redefining the Lesson Plan-Addressing WHO before What:Using "Instructional Circles":